Image: From Township to Amersfoort exhibition banner, Rietveldpaviljoen, Amersfoort
‘From Township to Amersfoort’ closed at the Rietveldpaviljoen in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, on Sunday 30 August 2026, after a run that began on Thursday 2 July. The exhibition set a large selection of sculptures by Amersfoort-based sculptor Emile van der Kruk alongside work by eleven artists living and working in South Africa, drawn from the portfolio of Art Chemistry.
Van der Kruk is best known for robust wooden sculptures whose surfaces keep the marks of their making, including the rough traces of chainsaw, gouge and chalk, but he has also worked extensively in bronze and the show drew on both. Among the works the venue’s newsletter singled out was ‘Trein door Landschap’ (2004), a bronze selected from his own collection.
Many of the South African artists have roots in the townships, and the organisers described the pairings as producing combinations that could be funny as well as moving, opening onto contrasts between wealth and poverty, romance and reality, youth and age, exuberance and stillness. Named among the South African contributions were Jibril Achu’s ‘Melody’ and Andrew Ntshabele’s ‘Serene Reflections II’. A film about a number of the participating artists ran continuously in the pavilion’s film room. No complete list of the eleven South African artists was published.
The exhibition was assembled by Van der Kruk and Wim van Ginkel, the founder of Art Chemistry.
The Rietveldpaviljoen, at Zonnehof 8 in Amersfoort, is open Thursday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., with admission at €5 and free entry for visitors under 18. Its programme continues with the Palestine solidarity exhibition ‘Helpen is de kunst’ from 3 to 6 September and ‘Wonderkamer | Verhalen die raken’ from 10 September to 4 October 2026. The season also runs up to the renovation and expansion of the pavilion, which the municipality of Amersfoort is due to begin in 2027.
